


The Longest Night

by robindrake93



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Book 2: The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson), Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Drugged Sex, Explicit Sexual Content, M/M, Murder, One Shot, POV First Person, Rape/Non-con Elements, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:48:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25160401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robindrake93/pseuds/robindrake93
Summary: Percy and Co sneak aboard the Princess Andromeda but after settling into the room for the night, Percy can't sleep. He's lured out onto the deck, where he reunites with his enemy, Luke Castellan.
Relationships: Luke Castellan/Percy Jackson
Comments: 15
Kudos: 134





	The Longest Night

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't what I set out to write at all. I really wanted to write something where they just spent a nice night together...but my discord was talking about the pit scorpion scene and I had Theories about it so...here we are. Please, please, I am begging you, read the tags before reading this fic.
> 
> If you don't like the font color, click "Hide Creator's Style" at the top and it'll revert to black.
> 
> My fics are not for reupload/reposting so don't do that. Thanks.

“We need a hiding place,” I said. “Somewhere safe to sleep.”

“Sleep,” Annabeth agreed wearily. 

We explored a few more corridors until we found an empty suite on the ninth level. The door was open, which struck me as weird. There was a basket of chocolate goodies on the table, an iced-down bottle of sparkling cider on the nightstand, and a mint on the pillow with a handwritten note that said: _Enjoy your stay!_

We opened our duffel bags for the first time and found that Hermes really had thought of everything — extra clothes, toiletries, camp rations, a ziploc bag full of cash, a leather pouch full of golden drachmas. He’d even managed to pack Tyson’s oilcloth with his tools and metal bits, and Annabeth’s cap of invisibility, which made them both feel a lot better. 

“I’ll be next door,” Annabeth said. “You guys _don’t_ drink or eat anything.”

“You think this place is enchanted?” 

She frowned. “I don’t know. Something isn’t right. Just…be careful.”

We locked our doors. 

Tyson crashed on the couch. He tinkered for a few minutes on his metalworking project — which he still wouldn’t show me — but soon enough he was yawning. He wrapped up his oilcloth and passed out. 

I lay on the bed and stared out the porthole. I thought I heard voices out in the hallway, like whispering. I knew that couldn’t be. We’d walked all over the ship and had seen nobody. But the voices kept me awake. They reminded me of my trip to the Underworld — the way the spirits of the dead sounded as they drifted past.

Finally my weariness got the best of me. I fell asleep...and felt a tug on my shirt. Somebody was tugging on my sleeve. I opened my eyes and saw no one. There was no one standing next to me. I closed my heavy eyelids. 

Another tug. 

I sat up, rubbing my sore eyes and looking for whoever woke me. There still wasn’t anyone there. Unless… “Annabeth?” I called softly so that I didn’t wake Tyson. 

Annabeth didn’t answer. 

My sleeve moved again, two tugs this time. 

“This isn’t funny, Annabeth.” I reached out, expecting to feel Annabeth. It was a cap that made you invisible, not intangible. There was nothing but air. 

This time it tugged on my sleeve and the leg of my jeans. 

It was like someone wanted me to go somewhere. If it wasn’t Annabeth, then who could it be? More importantly, was it worth it to get up? I was really tired. 

As though reading my thoughts, the tugging became more insistent. 

With great reluctance, I got to my feet. “Okay, okay,” I muttered. 

The tug pulled me in the direction of the door. 

“What about my shoes?”

It pulled me harder. 

“Okay. No shoes.” I checked my pocket for Riptide and then headed towards the door. This was probably a bad idea and I was probably walking into trouble again. I did that more often than I’d like to admit to. The sooner I dealt with this, the sooner I could go to sleep. 

As soon as I closed the door behind me, it felt like a huge gust of wind blew me forward. It was so strong that I nearly fell onto my face. 

“Alright! I’m going!” It felt weird to snap at something that, for all intents and purposes, wasn’t even there. Exhaustion made my shoulders droop and my feet drag. I would kill - and was likely going to have to - to go back to bed. 

The wind at my back and the tugging on my clothes led me up to the highest deck roof of the yacht. The lights were turned off on this deck, leaving it lit only by moonlight and the glowing yellow lights of lower decks. There was a lone figure standing at the railing about fifteen feet away, back to me. I recognized the shape of Luke’s shoulders. 

I tried to push back against the wind but it only got stronger and almost threw me onto the deck. I caught myself with my hands before my knees hit the wood. _Fine!_ I straightened and kept my steps light as I approached Luke. 

Luke held a curvy glass with a neon blue liquid in it. Slices of lemon and a cherry floated on top. He sipped it through a straw. When he was done drinking, Luke looked at me. “Hey, Percy.” He didn’t seem to have that new sword with him. 

I’d imagined meeting Luke again many times since he’d tried to kill me last summer. I’d pictured myself boldly standing up to him, challenging him to a duel. But now that we were face-to-face, I could barely stop my hands from shaking. There was a lot I could say, but I was so tired that all I said was “Hi, Luke.” I gripped the railing so that I swayed a little less obviously. “Well if that’s all you wanted, I’m really tired and I’d like to go back to bed.”

Luke’s lips quirked in a smile that stretched his scar. “I’m sorry for waking you. I just wanted the company.” He sipped his blue drink again. Then seemed to realize he was being rude. “Do you want one?”

I eyed the drink warily. It was blue, which was my favorite color. But I still remembered the last time Luke had given me a drink. “What is it?”

“A blue Long Island iced tea,” Luke replied. He moved his right hand to the stem of the glass and suddenly he was holding two of them. The second one, Luke handed to me. 

I took it, eyes wide with surprise. The glass was cool against my fingers and ice clinked within. The smell wafting from it was sweet and sharp. I looked at Luke. “Are you going to try to kill me after this?”

Luke shook his head. 

I put the straw between my lips and took a cautious sip. It tasted a lot like tea, which surprised me for some reason, even though it was in the name. “That was you? The...the tugging and the wind?” 

Luke’s smile turned impish. He didn’t move but suddenly there was a breeze that traveled up the back of my shirt. Something tugged lightly on my hair. 

“Hey!” I said and pressed my clothes back into place. “How did you do that?” 

Luke shrugged. “It was a gift.” 

His words made a chill go down my spine. I decided not to ask about that anymore. “Why wake me up and not Annabeth?”

Luke leaned against the railing and looked down at the empty lower decks. With more light on him, I could see that the vest he wore was gold, embroidered with silver and black designs. Down the back of his vest were laces like a corset, tied tightly. The dress shirt underneath was silvery in color and it shimmered when he moved. “When I’m done with you, I’ll put you right back into bed where I found you.”

I wasn’t in the best shape for a battle, not even one of wits. “Why are you wearing that?” I asked. I sipped my drink. It tasted like a weird tea but I really did like it. And it was blue, which made me both happy and homesick. “You look like a Disney villain.”

Luke smiled again, sweet and amused, like he used to at Camp. That made me homesick too. “I’m wearing it because I like it and now that I’m…” Luke hesitated, searched for the right phrase. “Out in the world, I can wear what I want to.” 

I gripped the railing tighter and frowned down at the swimming pool far below. The swimming pool was as blue as my drink. If I jumped, I would probably live but I’d never tried to manipulate chlorinated water. Maybe I’d just go _splat_ on the deck. “I didn’t hear any of that,” I admitted and resolved to listen a little harder. 

Luke told me again. 

This time, Luke’s words registered. My frown only deepened. Luke had spent five years at Camp Half-Blood and shockingly, there was in fact a dress code. It didn’t occur to me before that Luke had spent five years wearing the same shirt. “Corsets are a good look for you,” I mumbled reluctantly. 

Luke preened at my praise. The effect on his demeanor was startling and suddenly all I saw was my extremely handsome friend from Camp Half-Blood, not the person who tried to kill me or joined an evil Titan. “Thank you.” If it was that easy then Hermes was a worse dad than I thought. Did Hermes ever give Luke a compliment or praise? Luke cocked his head, studying my expression. “Why are you making that face?”

“I’m not making a face.” Was I making a face? My face felt warm from the summer heat. I took another sip of the cool drink. 

Luke smiled. “You totally are.” He picked the cherry out of his drink and popped it into his mouth. “What are you thinking about?”

I hesitated, but that didn’t last long. I was too used to answering Luke when he asked. “You look pretty.” 

Luke’s smile widened. 

My face grew hotter with a blush. What in Hades had I been thinking? I had to fix this right now. “I-I mean you’ve got appealing features in this lighting - I mean all the time! - you’re appealing all the time but right now you’re especially...pretty.” 

Luke’s expression was soft and amused. He clinked his glass against mine. “You’ve got appealing features too, Percy.”

“You know what, you won’t even have to kill me after drinks because I’m going to die of embarrassment,” I said. 

Luke laughed. “There isn’t anything wrong with finding someone attractive,” Luke said, amusement still in his voice. 

“I don’t find you attractive!” I insisted. “You’re just nice to look at.”

“Okay, Percy.” His tone told me that I wasn’t fooling him. 

“Shut up, Luke.” I ate the cherry to give myself something to do besides look at Luke. My eyes found the empty decks. “Don’t you have a crew?”

Luke nodded and did not elaborate. 

I yawned so huge that my eyes watered. I rubbed them and asked, “Where are they?”

“Keeping out of my way,” Luke replied vaguely. The man was a master at being vague. He must have learned from Chiron. “Are you hungry?” 

The tea sloshed around in my stomach in a sort of nauseating way. I couldn’t tell if exhaustion was making me sick or if I actually needed sustenance in my stomach. “Maybe...some toast or something light.”

“Bread is a good idea,” Luke agreed. He straightened and gestured for me to follow him back into the hallway I’d arrived through. 

I yawned again, and my eyes watered again. The tea wasn’t very energizing and I had drunk most of it. I let go of the railing slowly and took careful steps towards Luke. It felt like the whole deck was swaying under rough waters. I nearly fell over. The only thing that caught me was Luke’s weird power, keeping me on my feet. It felt strange being held up by something I couldn’t see, but it didn’t hurt and that was my main priority. 

Luke led me down to the kitchen, which was far deeper into the ship. We passed the ninth floor where I had left Annabeth and Tyson sleeping. Luke didn’t so much as glance towards their door. 

“Why do you want company?” I asked as we walked. We hadn’t run into a single person, which was super weird. Not to mention, every floor looked the same to me. It would be super easy to get lost on the ship. 

“Why does anyone want company?” Luke asked over his shoulder. 

I didn’t say anything. 

We arrived in the kitchen and Luke didn’t hesitate to open a cupboard and pull out a loaf of bread. He moved like he’d been in here a lot. Without looking at me, Luke said, “You do realize that I’m a person, right? I’ve got thoughts, feelings, goals, desires. All of that stuff.” He said this calmly, movements fluid as he sliced the loaf into slices. 

“Bad ones,” I said without conviction. Hermes thought there was still a chance to save Luke, otherwise he wouldn’t have asked me to talk to Luke. I sipped the last of my drink and frowned down at the lemon slices and ice cubes in the bottom. 

“You wouldn’t say that if you walked in my shoes,” Luke said. He spread butter onto the slices, still cool as a cucumber. He glanced at me, saw my drink was gone, and snapped his fingers. My drink was instantly refilled. 

I was impressed and failed to hide it. “If I walked in _your_ shoes, Zeus would blast me out of the sky.” 

The smile Luke offered me was knowing and bitter. “Exactly.” He put the slices of bread in a toaster oven and set the timer. Then he leaned against the counter and studied me. His glass was still half full. 

I leaned against an island counter and set my drink down before it fell out of my hand. The air conditioning inside the kitchen only served to make me more tired. I yawned, then rested my head on my arms. If I could just close my eyes for five minutes…

I was roused by Luke setting a plate in front of me. I opened my eyes and stared blankly. Set on a plain white plate was two slices of toast, buttered and cooked to perfection. The smell of the warm bread made my stomach growl. I lifted my head a few inches off the table and shoved the toast into my mouth. 

Luke leaned against the other side of the island counter, elbows against the steel, blue eyes watching me. An amused smile played on his lips.

I kept one eye on Luke while I ate, still not entirely trusting him. A voice that sounded suspiciously like Annabeth’s told me that I was trusting him too much. Didn’t Annabeth say _not_ to drink or eat anything? I reached for the blue tea and drank it to wash down the bread. But Luke was drinking the tea too. He wasn’t eating the toast, though… I stopped eating, set the toast down. 

A pained expression crossed Luke’s face, like looking at me hurt him. He sighed. “It’s not poisoned,” Luke said without prompting. 

“I don’t trust you,” I shot back.

“You shouldn’t,” Luke agreed seriously. Lighter, he said, “I’m not going to make you eat if you don’t want to.”

I pulled the glass closer to me, wrapped my lips around the straw, and glared at Luke. The drink barely satisfied my thirst, which was weird. Maybe I needed to drink more. “I’m done.” 

Luke’s gaze flicked down to the plate of half eaten toast then back up to me. His eyes told me he wasn’t happy about me not eating it. He snatched the other slice off the plate and took a huge bite out of it. “C’mon, then. Let’s go for a swim.” 

Reluctantly, I followed Luke out of the kitchen. Now that I had something in my stomach, I felt a little bit better. But I was still really, really tired. “Don’t you have friends to hang out with?” I complained. 

Luke walked in front of me, confident that I would follow because his telekinesis was dragging me along. My eyes kept drawing down the line of the corset’s eyelets, over the curve of Luke’s spine. Those slacks of his did wonders for his ass. It was definitely an improvement over the khaki shorts he’d worn at Camp Half-Blood. “No,” Luke said matter-of-factly. 

I blinked up at the back of his head. “What do you mean, no? You’ve got to have friends. You were at Camp for...forever.” I couldn’t quite remember the exact number of years. 

We passed through a door, which Luke held open for me, and came out onto a lower deck. This was the deck with the swimming pool. It wasn’t a saltwater pool, I could tell that from here. “All of my friends are dead, Percy. With the exception of the one sleeping on the ninth floor.” Luke stated this in the same matter-of-fact tone, completely devoid of emotion. 

I rubbed my eyes and tried to make my brain work. “How can they all be dead?” Maybe Luke just didn’t make a lot of friends. But he seemed pretty social and well-liked at Camp. 

Luke sighed, fixed me with an expression that said he didn’t want to talk about this. He stopped on the deck to face me. “I didn’t go to school, ever. I was nine when I ran away and I didn’t meet Thalia until I was eleven. Then we didn’t run into anyone friendly until I was fourteen and found Annabeth. That was the year Thalia died.” Luke paused, waiting to see if I was following. 

I nodded, even though my head was spinning. He ran away at nine? He was alone for two years? “Camp?” I asked weakly. 

Luke turned his gaze to the ceiling of the deck above us. He took a deep breath. “My first couple of years there, I tried to make friends. I did make friends. But by the time I was sent on my stupid quest, they’d all died. Either on their own quests or over the off season. Chiron gave me the job of sword fighting instructor and…” Luke paused again, gathering his thoughts. He swallowed. “Well, there’s a reason that Chiron keeps all of us at a distance. You can’t be friends with the people whose lives are in your hands. Because if they die, then everyone blames you. Maybe not consciously but you can still tell. And you blame yourself.” 

Luke abruptly turned heel and walked out beneath the sky, towards the pool. His shoulders were raised with tension. 

I looked after him for a long moment, putting together this new information. Chiron once told me that training demigods was horribly depressing at times. I think Luke knew that too. There was a tug on my sleeve and I followed Luke to the pool. It smelled strongly like chlorine, making me wrinkle my nose. 

Luke noticed. He quirked his lips in a smile. “Not your speed?” He flopped down onto a pool chair. 

“I don’t like the chemicals,” I admitted as I sat on the pool chair next to his. The smell of the pool covered up the smell of anything - or anyone - else who might be here. I raised my drink to my face and just breathed in the sweet-sharp smell of it. That sort of helped. I took a drink. “I knew you were on the ship the second we boarded,” I confided, looking around to make sure that there weren’t any monsters about to attack me. It would be just like Luke to walk me directly into an ambush. “I...sensed something dangerous and familiar.”

Luke tilted his head slightly. “Sensed?” 

My face warmed with a blush, as it was wont to do tonight. “Yeah. Sensed.” I ate the cherry off my drink to avoid looking at Luke.

“Sensed how?” It was a leading question; one that Luke knew the answer to but wanted to hear it from me. 

Heat prickled up my scalp. I was sure that I was red all the way to the roots of my hair. I squirmed, uncomfortable. “I could smell you.” My voice was low and unhappy. “Is that normal?” I forced myself to lift my eyes to Luke’s face.

Luke didn’t look surprised by my confession. “Demigods have heightened senses. That includes smell.” He paused, thinking, stirring his drink. “Have you ever run into demigods that you don’t know outside of Camp?”

I hesitated, thought about it before answering. “No.”

Luke hummed. “In our area most of them are at Camp or dead already so it’s not surprising. If you traveled more, you’d run into them more. And you would know they were demigods because you can smell them.” 

No one had ever told me that before. It made sense, though. Sort of. “I thought only monsters could smell demigods.” 

Luke shook his head. “We can smell each other too.” He ran his finger along the rim of his glass, stared into the blue liquid. “Recognizing specific demigods by scent isn’t as common. You’ve got to be close, spend a lot of time together.” 

“We were close,” I said and couldn’t keep the hurt out of my voice. Luke’s betrayal still hurt worse than the pit scorpion’s sting. 

Luke looked pained again. He briefly met my eyes. “I know.” It looked like he wanted to say more but his jaw was firmly set. 

“But we weren’t friends.” I said it like a statement but it was a question. The fact that Luke said he didn’t have friends except for Annabeth actually really stung. It made me rethink everything, our whole relationship, all over again. If we weren’t friends then I didn’t know what we were. Thinking about it made my head hurt. 

Luke was quiet for a long, long time. When he finally spoke, his voice was soft, “Don’t get me wrong, Percy. I like you.” 

Now that we were sitting down, I was having a much harder time staying awake. I didn’t want to pass out in front Luke but I may not have a choice. My chin dropped towards my chest but I woke up before really falling asleep. I set my drink between my thighs so that I didn’t spill it. “I think you’re lying but I don’t know why.” My head dropped to my chest and I closed my eyes. Sleep covered me like a weighted blanket. 

I was woken by something cold running down my chest and another cold thing sliding down my back. I yelped, wiggling to try to get away from the cold. Even as I tried to get the ice out of my shirt, it was melting against my skin. 

Luke laughed. His fingers were wet from digging ice cubes from his drink. “I don’t want you falling asleep on me,” he said. 

I glared at him. “How much longer are you planning on keeping me awake?” 

A shrug was the only reply. 

“Don’t you need to sleep?” I asked desperately. The toast had helped but now that I wasn’t on my feet, exhaustion hit me like the Minotaur. 

“Nope. I’m good.” There was something of a challenge in the way Luke looked at me. 

My eyes ached. “Am I going to have to fight you later? For real, Luke. Don’t lie to me.” 

The challenge and the smile faded from Luke’s expression. “You won’t have to fight me, Percy.” It _looked_ like Luke was telling the truth but it was so difficult to tell with him. Luke was so good at lying. 

Maybe this was the fight. Maybe it was a battle of wills rather than swords. Fine. Challenge accepted. I crossed my arms over my chest. “Then keep me entertained.”

The sound of music made me jump. It started playing from hidden speakers all around us. I recognized the song as one that had come out this year and was insanely popular. It was called Chasing Cars. I raised an eyebrow at Luke. 

Luke set his glass down and stood up. He straightened his vest and then offered his hand to me. Very formally Luke said, “May I have the honor of entertaining you, Percy?” 

For the millionth time that night, my face colored with a blush. I wanted to blame this blush on the heat too, but the deeper into night we went, the cooler it got outside. I set my glass next to Luke’s and then put my hand in his. Luke’s fingers were calloused, rough against my palms. I didn’t hate the feeling. 

Luke helped me to my feet. He led me out to a clear section of deck and then faced me. “Do you know anything about dancing?”

I didn’t want to let Luke down but I knew that he would call me out on my lie immediately if I told one. “Only what I’ve seen on TV.” 

Luke put one hand on my hip and held my other one. He guided me around the deck, movements graceful despite having to lug me around.

As for me, I just tried not to step on his toes. This was so embarrassing. Spinning around on the deck, even slow circles, didn’t help my head any either. 

“It’s okay,” Luke said gently. “I’ve got you.” He was close enough to me that I could smell his deodorant, that I could feel the heat coming off his body, and taste the lemon slice he’d eaten. 

My heart pounded double time. We were too close. I couldn’t forget that Luke was evil. I tried to pull away. 

Then there was a loud, loud sound like a huge horn honking somewhere and it scared me so bad I almost jumped out of my skin. Our feet got tangled up. We fell into the pool. 

When Luke broke the surface, he was laughing. 

The water, even chlorinated, made me feel a little better. I was even more embarrassed. The honking was just the sound coming from a passing boat. Gods, I was so stupid. I let myself sink to the bottom of the pool. 

Luke dived down after me. He was in my element; I could have stopped him from hauling me back to the surface. “I’m sorry, Percy, I’m not laughing at you.” He said the second we were above the water. 

I was pressed against him, his arm wrapped around my waist, and our legs kicking. I thought about dragging Luke down with me like a kelpie, drowning him at the bottom of the pool. But I couldn’t kill him in cold blood. Not really. The idea made me want to cry. “Luke, can we get out?” 

The music wasn’t playing anymore. Luke was still smiling, face lit up prettily by the deck lights. “Yeah, of course.” He hauled us to the side and helped me out before dragging himself from the water. Luke laid on his back with his legs still in the pool. “Are you okay?”

I laid on my stomach, staring at him, breathing harder than I should have been. “I don’t know.” 

Luke looked away from me and to the sky. He folded his hands over his stomach. They were shaking. “Didn’t drown.”

“I can’t drown,” I said. I’ve tried and prayed and begged to drown. Clearly I was still alive so the whole drowning thing wasn’t going to happen. 

We didn’t rest long. Luke sat up and flashed me a smile. There was something off about it...the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “You wanna see something cool?”

“I want to go back to bed,” I said. At this point, I would settle for sleeping at the bottom of the swimming pool if it meant getting some shut eye. 

“C’mon, don’t be like that. You’re supposed to be young and full of energy.” Luke stood up and then used his magic to lift me to my feet. He picked up both drinks, handed me mine, and then took a long gulp of his. 

I swayed on my feet. I took a drink because my mouth was so dry. The tea still didn’t seem to be helping my thirst. The tug pulled me toward Luke. With great reluctance, I followed him. 

Luke was very talkative. The cool thing appeared to just be a tour of the ship. Luke talked about the features, state-of-the-art this and that, the luxury. It was a luxurious ship, there was no doubt.

I just didn’t care. I didn’t understand why Luke was doing this. Why keep me awake? Why run me around the ship? My hands shook so bad that I couldn’t even dream of hiding it. 

We went down, down, down into the bowels of the ship. It hurt to think about climbing back up to the ninth floor. I finished my blue tea only for the glass to refill. 

Luke talked and talked and talked about absolutely nothing. He didn’t stop for breath, didn’t stop to make sure that I was actually listening. His magic pulled me along. 

I stared at the curve of his spine, at the lattice. It was such a pretty article of clothing. 

Luke took me to the engine room. “Check it out,” he said and stepped aside. 

It was hot in there, hot enough that I sweated. There, curled up on itself multiple times, in a space far too small for it, was a drakon. It was huge and terrifying. 

I thought I was going to die. I tried to back out of the room but ran into Luke’s chest. Luke wasn’t going to fight me; he was going to let the drakon eat me. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted him. 

“Hey, it’s alright. It’s asleep. It won’t wake up.” Luke held me tight, arms like steel bands around me. 

Luke was right; nothing was happening. The drakon was asleep. It didn’t even twitch at the sight of us. 

Even though it was asleep, I thought I was going to faint being in the same room as it. It terrified me. Maybe it was the size, maybe I remembered something from myth. Either way, I didn’t think I stood a chance at defeating it if it woke up. “I want to leave, Luke. Please,” I said quietly. 

Luke pulled me back out of the engine room. “Pretty cool, right?” He didn’t seem to notice that I did not think the drakon was cool. He told me the story of how they’d gotten it, taking me back up the levels but...but we were going a different route. I didn’t recognize anything. “Hey,” he said to me. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just...it’s so cool.” 

I looked at Luke and saw that he practically had stars in his eyes thinking about the drakon. It occurred to me that he _actually_ thought it was cool. I stumbled on a bump in the rug.

Luke caught me around the middle before I face planted on the floor. “Careful.” 

“Thanks,” I said. I straightened up.

Luke let me go. “Let’s watch a movie,” Luke suggested. 

A movie sounded great. That meant we could sit down. Maybe I could even sleep during the movie. “Yeah, okay.” 

Luke’s smile was bright and warm. He led me higher aboard the ship, to a new level. We went into a room that held a giant television, a couch, some arcade games, and a pool table.

I couldn’t wait to faceplant on that couch. I did just that, stepping onto the plush carpet and practically falling onto the couch. I groaned, happy to finally be able to rest. 

Luke laughed as he watched me. Then he turned and began to set up the TV to play a movie. When he was done, Luke walked over to the couch and picked up my feet. He sat down on the cushion and left my feet in his lap. “If you keep your face in the cushions, you’re going to suffocate, Percy.”

I turned my face towards the TV. The moment the chords began to play, I immediately knew what movie he’d put on. It was Labyrinth. “I love this movie,” I said, words slurring and stretching. 

“Me too,” Luke said and caressed my calf. He had something in his hand, something soft that he curled around my ankle. 

That probably should have bothered me, but it really didn’t. I almost wished it was my head he was caressing instead. I was exhausted but I also felt weirdly wired, too wired to fall asleep. It seemed like a waste of a couch if I couldn’t even fall asleep. 

David Bowie showed up on screen and said something that I missed. Just because I didn’t hear the words didn’t mean that I didn’t hear the tone. “Gods, his voice,” I said. Warmth seemed to be flowing through me like a hot spring bubbling up. 

“I know, right?” Luke agreed. He switched to my other calf, massaging the muscle. 

Time went by and I found myself staring at David Bowie’s incredibly noticeable bulge every time he was on screen. I giggled under my breath; it sounded more like a pathetic huff than a proper giggle. “Gods, that bulge. I can’t take my eyes off it.” 

Luke laughed, voice warm and low. “Is that your thing? Pants so tight you can see the outline of cock?”

It was a shockingly dirty thing to come from his mouth considering that Luke hadn’t cussed even a little bit at all in all the time I’ve known him. With great effort, I rolled over. I pushed myself onto my elbows and lifted my head. “Holy shit.” 

“Language.” Luke looked surprised with himself for scolding me. “Sorry. Habit.” 

“Say it again,” I demanded. 

“Say what again?” Luke asked, brow furrowed slightly. 

“Say what you said again. I wanna hear you say it again.” I couldn’t explain the growing need within me to hear that word come from Luke’s mouth again. It was strange and powerful, this feeling, this desire. 

Luke faced me now, an unreadable expression on his face. “Is that your thing?” He repeated, voice slow as though turning the words over in his mouth. 

I shook my head. My arms trembled with exhaustion. “The rest,” I whispered. I was afraid that if I spoke at a normal volume, Luke wouldn’t do it. Like I’d be breaking a spell. 

Luke’s expression was still shuttered and strange. He looked like he was on the verge of having an epiphany. “Pants so tight you can see the outline of cock.” This was a statement, not a question any longer. 

I let my head fall back and exhaled loudly. Luke had said it again but differently. It made my stomach clench and...I felt tingly. “Say it again.”

I couldn’t see Luke’s face with my eyes squeezed shut but I felt him set my feet on the couch. I felt the cushions shift as Luke hovered over me on his hands and knees. I couldn’t lift my head but I opened my eyes to try and see.

Luke was still by my feet. The expression on his face looked dangerous and exciting all wrapped into one. “Cock,” Luke said because he’s figured it out. He crawled up the length of my body so that we could look at each other. “Is that what you wanted?” 

I blinked owlishly up at him. His scent flooded my senses. “I just like hearing you say it.” 

Luke didn’t move but he seemed to get closer to me just the same. “Cock.” 

That tingly feeling spread between my legs and up my chest. I had a vague idea of what it was but it still felt so new. I let my eyelids slide closed again. “I can imagine you wearing something like that.” I jerked my face towards the TV just in case Luke forgot what we were talking about. 

“Can you?” Luke asked, his blue eyes stared into my green ones. “What specifically comes to mind?”

My face grew red with a blush. I swallowed. “I just...those pants. They seem like…your speed.” 

“Would you be staring at my cock like that?” Luke asked. 

I lowered my gaze to look down the length of Luke’s body. He wore black slacks. They were fitted nicely, looked high quality. Was that…was Luke _hard_? “Yes,” I admitted. It was like my filter was completely gone. What was wrong with me? 

“Would you want to touch my cock?” Luke asked, voice still warm. There was a hint of a growl, a rasp to his voice that wasn’t normally there. 

My mouth was dry. I dragged my eyes back up to Luke’s face. It took so much effort. “Yes.” My voice was a hiss, barely able to even form the word at all. I felt so weird, hot all over and unattached to my body. “Do you have water?” 

Luke was kneeling on the floor next to my head now. He produced a glass of ice cold water from somewhere. I don’t know where. I must have lost some time because the next time I looked at the screen, David Bowie was waving a baby around. Luke put a straw to my lips. While I drank, Luke pulled the fabric from my ankle and loosely wrapped it around my throat. 

What I drank tasted like water in the way that flavored water did; which is to say not very much. But it helped my thirst a little. My eyelids felt so heavy. Something about the flavor was sharp, too sharp to just be water. Distantly, I heard Annabeth’s voice in my head telling me not to drink or eat anything. I’d done both. 

“Sorry,” Luke whispered. “We only have lemon flavor.” He was crouched beside the couch, eye level with me. His pupils were wide, wide, wide, bottomless black pits to get lost in. Luke’s shoulders shook in a subtle vibration that looked unnatural. 

For the first time that night, I realized I was actually in trouble. The realization was distant, came at me like someone yelling at a great distance. Now that it was too late, it barely mattered. “What...did you...give...me?” Every word was a struggle. 

His pupils were so wide that there was no blue. Just jagged black obsidian looking back at me. “Which time?” Luke asked, voice a dry rasp. He produced another blue drink and swallowed down a few large gulps. His tongue darted over his lips. “You’ve been drinking alcohol this whole time, Percy. And that,” Luke jerked his chin towards the glass of supposed lemon water. “That’s something else entirely and it’s more potent than the alcohol.” 

I should have felt horror but I was too far away from myself. The horror was a slow creep like a snail over the spine of a long dead animal. It didn’t feel threatening in the slightest. I closed my eyes, dropped my head onto the couch cushions. My soul felt like it was trying to leave my body. This was worse than going to the Underworld. Maybe I groaned. Maybe I said something else. I couldn’t tell you. I was reaching the end of something. 

Luke carefully laid me onto the plush carpeted floor. He hovered over me, weight keeping me in place and hands cupping my face. “Hey, sweetheart,” Luke said. “You still in there?” The way he said it made me think that he’d been saying it for a while now. 

“Luke?” I mumbled, eyelids fluttering. That was a good question. I felt out of my body, like I was floating up into space and nothing could hold me here. My heart beat harder than it ever had before, like it was trying to bruise my chest from the inside. My skin was drenched in sweat that I could feel every time I moved. The scarf was heavy around my throat, not tight, just weighty. 

“Good boy,” Luke purred. His hands ran down my sides, beneath the hem of my shirt, and then back up to my chest. 

I could hardly feel it. Sensation came and went, like I was made of patchwork; part doll and part human. I blinked hard but my vision swam. “Luke?” What was happening to me? I lifted my arms, surprised to find that I still could, and wrapped them around Luke’s neck. I needed something to ground me, to keep me firmly in my body. 

“Don’t worry, sweetheart. This isn’t going to be like last time.” Luke’s fingers pinched first one nipple and then the other. 

I felt it as pleasure under my skin and was distantly aware of blood rushing to fill my cock; which was a sweet pressure all on its own. I didn’t feel closer to my body but I also didn’t feel farther away from it. 

Luke pushed my shirt up to my armpits. “I’ve got time now,” Luke continued. He ducked his head and sucked my nipple into his mouth. 

A starburst of pleasure at the touch. I heard myself moan. 

Luke’s lips were red when he lifted his face to meet my eyes. “It’s been three days, Percy.” He mouthed my other nipple, circled it with his tongue. 

Luke wasn’t making sense. I mewled as his tongue just kept circling, riling me up. It felt so good, too good. Was I getting closer to my body? It was hard to tell. 

Luke kept his hands busy while his mouth teased me. He unbuttoned my jeans and yanked them and my underwear down to my knees. “Blue? You’re too cute, Percy.” Luke kissed just above my navel and then just below it. 

I only knew because I was watching him through my lashes. I couldn’t actually feel his lips on me. Still, there must have been some sort of sensation because I was definitely hard now. Normally I would be embarrassed about another person seeing my genitals but I couldn’t even muster that much feeling. What did he give me? How long would it last? 

Now Luke was stripping out of his clothes without touching them, using his weird new magic to remove them from his body. When he touched me again, it was with his hands, sliding my jeans off and leaving them on the floor with his clothes. Between his thighs, his cock stood proudly, looking so hard it must have hurt. Luke ran his hands up my torso then down to my thighs. 

Patchwork; I could only feel part of it but I watched him the best I could. Luke was mostly a blur. I could smell him better than I could see him. The spots that I could feel felt like pleasure-pain, too good to be good. 

Luke produced a bottle of clear liquid from nowhere. He flipped the cap and poured the lube onto my dick. 

It was cold, such a contrast to my hot skin that I gasped.

Luke kissed me. “Sorry, sweetheart. I’ll warm you up quick.” His hand curled around my cock and he began to stroke it. His hand made an obscene noise on my dick, a slick sound.

I threw one arm over my eyes so that I didn’t have to watch. Watching made it feel unbearably good, made me feel like I was more firmly in my body and suddenly I didn’t want to be. I was too tired to buck my hips into his touch but my cock twitched in his hand. “Luke!” 

“Hm?” Luke hummed. He let go of my cock to stretch out on top of me, skin against my skin. His heart pounded a million miles an hour but it was still nothing compared to the pain of my heartbeat. Luke’s skin felt so good against my skin, and the sweat made him glide. He was cold where I was hot. “This wasn’t really part of my plan, you know? But then...I had a little white and you wanted me to say cock and it just got stuck in my head.” 

I had no idea what he was talking about. White? Plan? Luke must have weighed a hundred pounds more than me and he squashed me into the floor beneath him. It was less grounding than I thought it should be. I managed to drape an arm over Luke’s shoulder. “Plan?” I mouthed the word, wasn’t sure that I actually put sound to it. 

Luke pressed his chest more firmly against mine. His dick throbbed against my thigh. He did something to my neck with his mouth but I couldn’t feel it. “Don’t...don’t worry about it, sweetheart. I’ll take good care of you. Swear I will…” Then he sat up and kissed me. 

My arm slid off his shoulder when he sat up. My mouth still had feeling so I felt it. Luke’s lips on mine felt nice. 

Luke touched my dick again, grip firm and purposeful. He didn’t stop kissing me.

A shiver went through me, like my skeleton wanted to jump out of my skin in fright but didn’t have the strength. I whimpered, surprised that I had actually made a sound. There was a bit of a disconnect between reality and my brain so it took me a couple of minutes to realize that Luke was...that my dick was inside of Luke. I wasn’t a virgin anymore and I didn’t care at all. 

My vision swam, blurred, blackened near the edges, before clearing again. But this is what I saw in those brief moments of clarity; Luke’s hips rocking fluidly as he rode me. The flush beneath his skin making freckles I hadn’t known about shine like little dots of gold. His cock bouncing, dripping, so achingly hard and red with lust. The way his long lashes kissed his cheeks when he closed his eyes. Luke’s pulse fluttering in the hollow of his throat. 

Luke moaned, settled into a hard grind that almost hurt but not quite. He whimpered and whined like he couldn’t get enough. Then he lifted up with a gasp and went back to bouncing, up and down along the length of my cock. 

I forced my hands to move, got them on his thighs. His skin was cold, so cold. It felt so nice. And Luke’s body on my cock, the tight hole I was inside of? That felt incredible. Luke was so hot and tight on the inside. I was pretty sure that these points of connection was the only place I was still connected to my body, that if I stopped touching Luke, I would actually float away. Then there would be no more Percy Jackson. 

Luke noticed my hands on his thighs. He smiled briefly, moved one of them to wrap around his cock. He was hot there too, like velvet sliding through my fingers. 

I had a brief thought of David Bowie, before thoughts of Luke clouded my mind and the actor out. Who could compare to Luke? Not even David Bowie because I had Luke’s actual dick in my hand and I liked the weight of it. I think I liked him bouncing on my cock too. 

When I came, my vision went white and stayed that way. Luke’s handsome face was the last thing I would ever see.

**LUKE**

I felt a spurt of warmth inside of me when Percy came. And heard his small, broken moan as he filled me. Percy’s hand fell from my cock, back to my thigh, and he weakly scratched my skin in a way that made me think he wanted to gouge his nails into me. 

I pulled off of Percy before he got too soft to keep riding. His cum oozed out of me and down my balls. I still hadn’t cum and Gods if I went this far, I might as well finish. I never meant to go this far. 

Percy’s thighs still had baby fat to keep them plush. It was so easy to put both of his legs on my right shoulder and slide my cock between the small gap of his thighs. Percy was limp and boneless. His eyes were mostly closed but sometimes I caught a glimmer as he tried to look at me. I didn’t think he could see me anymore; the poor kid was drugged up to his gills and absolutely swimming in alcohol. His lips were parted, ragged breaths coming through them. Percy’s Godly heritage was the only reason he was still alive, hadn't succumbed to the substances in his system. 

I fucked his thighs, slid my cock between them. Sweat and precum offered some glide, barely kept it from being too rough and dry. I was drunk and high and my bones vibrated with it. Percy felt so good. His skin was soft and smooth. His thighs around my cock were the sweetest sin. Even riding his cock had been good, small as it still was; it was long enough to reach my prostate - to just grind and grind and grind against that sweet spot, couldn’t believe I hadn’t cum yet - and wide enough to stretch my rim in a delicious way. 

With one hand I held up his legs, with the other I propped myself up. One of Percy’s hands rested over top of mine, palms sweaty and fingers curled around mine. Every few breaths he inhaled through his nose; taking in our scents, making sure it was still me on top of him. 

With every thrust, my cock slid against his and pretty soon he was getting hard again too. Gods, I loved demigods. We were so goddamn hard to kill and horny as rabbits even when…

Don’t think about it. 

Maybe Aphrodite’s scarf had something to do with it. It was wrapped loosely around Percy’s neck, shimmering opalescent against his brown skin. The scarf wasn't made for lust; it was made for love. It’d been in my pocket all night, there to make Percy relaxed for our initial reunion. 

I shifted slightly so that the head of my cock caught on his with every thrust. Focusing that hard made my vision swim out of focus. 

But it was worth it to draw another soft moan from Percy’s throat, to coax more pleasure out of him. Percy tried to say my name but only managed to loll the L and click the K. His skin was hot, growing hotter, and he smelled like the alcohol he’d been drinking for the past three days. But even the alcohol couldn’t cover up the smell of the ocean on his skin, in his hair. 

I didn’t have a rhythm, too shaky and tired to even try. Just fucked between those sweet thighs and focused on the pleasure building and the tightening of my balls. Gods, Percy was so beautiful. I leaned forward, bending Percy in half so that I could kiss his open mouth. “You’re beautiful,” I told him, unsure if he could even hear me. Then I straightened up and looked at his cock underneath mine, pink and leaking precum onto his belly. I came without a sound, cum spurting onto Percy’s skin. 

Percy didn’t react to it at all except to twitch his fingers against mine. He was still hard.

I put his legs down on either side of me, feet flat against the floor. I sucked his cock into my mouth. 

When Percy came for a second time, it was a small burst of cum on my tongue. No more. He was too dehydrated; hadn’t had a proper drink of water in who knows how long. 

I swallowed, wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. “Better than last time, huh?” 

No response. 

I sighed and plucked a syringe from seemingly nowhere. Inside was a noxious black liquid. “You did really good, Percy,” I told him as I turned Percy’s arm over to expose the bend of his elbow. His veins stood out in stark blue contrast to his brown skin. “You were very brave. Your skill with the sword is legendary, especially for your age. Demigods for generations will remember your name and deeds.” I slid the needle into Percy’s vein. 

Still no response. Percy’s heart was still beating and his chest still rose and fell with shallow breaths, I could see that much. Not dead yet and that was a small miracle, a small mercy more for me than him. 

I dispensed the contents of the syringe into Percy’s system, and set the empty syringe down. It only took a second to get dressed. Then I sat beside Percy on the floor and held his hand. 

I was acutely aware of every single second that passed. It took me the better part of a year to get used to feeling the passage of time. The feeling was like having a clock in my body, a constant tick, tick, tick of time. So I knew when sixty seconds had passed. 

I knew, down to the second, when Percy had died. It happened rather quickly, as far as these things went. The pit scorpion’s venom rapidly paralyzed organs; which meant that the heart stopped pumping and the lungs didn’t pull in air and the brain stopped sending out and receiving information. It was a supernaturally fast death. 

Killing Percy quickly was the least I could do. The poor kid wasn’t even going to make it past his sixteenth birthday and between now and then? There was only pain and suffering. Now all of the children of the Big Three had been taken care of, one way or another. The prophecy wouldn’t come true. 

I cleaned Percy’s body and redressed him, moving on autopilot. I pulled the scarf from around his neck and shoved it back into my pocket. On the edge of my consciousness, I could feel the crash coming. Cocaine hadn’t been my first choice but it was a desperate measure. I was manipulating time in two separate ways on this ship; one to keep everyone but me and Percy asleep and one to run the ship on a different stream of time than the rest of the world. It was _exhausting_. I couldn’t fucking believe I had kept it up for this long. 

Especially since Kronos had been screaming in my head for almost the whole time. He was furious that I was using his powers for this and that I dragged it out for so long. Kronos was quiet now, too exhausted and drained to keep talking. But I couldn’t just let Percy die hating me. The look of betrayal on his face after he realized that I was going to kill him still made me feel like someone was stabbing me through the heart with a rusty knife. I had a chance to do things right and I took it. No pain, no fear. Just hanging out and having a good time. Rekindling the bond that had formed between us. If Percy recognized me by scent alone, the second he got on the Princess Andromeda, then he’d bonded harder to me than I’d suspected. 

I kissed Percy’s lips, still warm but tinged blue from all of the dye in the Long Island iced teas he’d drunk. The boy didn’t move. He wouldn’t. He was dead. I picked him up and carried him back to the room they’d chosen to rest in. I had promised that I would put him back to bed when we were done. Keeping that promise was the least I could do after killing him. 

The presence of the cyclops on the couch made the hairs on the back of my neck prickle but he was fast asleep and wouldn’t be waking until I let him. I walked past the cyclops and laid Percy on the bed, tucking him under the covers. “Good night, sweetheart. I’m so, so sorry it had to be this way.” I placed one last lingering kiss on his forehead. 

With that grim task completed, I went to my suite. The second my head hit the pillow, I let go of time. Physically there was no detectable effect; no one else would even know how long they’d been asleep under my spell. For me, it was the difference between an elephant on my chest and that elephant lifting its foot. I could breathe again. I could relax, finally. 

The crash came after that. Violent shaking and sweating. I threw up on my floor twice. I felt like shit, like worse than shit. Three days of binge drinking followed by snorting cocaine was not a good idea. I would never, ever do this again. And I was so, so tired. Tired in my body, my soul, my brain. I lay on the edge of my bed, eyes closed because the lids were too heavy to keep open, and passed out. 

I dreamed of deep, dark water. Of being eaten by things that glowed and things that were transparent and things with hundreds of teeth and no eyes. Of cold saltwater filling my lungs and making them burn. I dreamed of being reborn and drowning in the blood waters of the womb, never seeing the sun again. I was filled with a primal terror that was so strong I couldn’t even think. 

This couldn’t be real. It felt real. 

I opened my eyes. I was underwater. The Princess Andromeda was in pieces around me, sinking to the bottom of the harbor. Poseidon must have found out about Percy’s death. Funny how I had never factored in Poseidon, how I had thought he wouldn’t care. 

The last bit of air left my lungs and floated in bubbles towards the surface. Pale shapes moved towards me in the water. My dream was coming true. The reality of drowning was that it burned. My head felt like it was going to explode, my lungs were on fire. There was nothing peaceful or cool about drowning. Black crept up on the edges of my vision, blocking out the few glittering lights from the surface. The water shifted around me as the creatures of the sea circled. I almost, _almost_ didn’t feel it when their teeth sank into my skin. But I knew this: I wasn’t going to make it to dawn. I would never see the sun again. This was the last and the longest night of my life.


End file.
